Automated coffee brewers and dispensers are currently in use and are popular in numerous offices and places of business. Such coffee brewer/dispensers typically store ground coffee beans in a large, bulk hopper and move a small amount of ground coffee beans into a brew device when a cup of coffee is requested by a user. Within the brew device, the ground coffee beans are mixed with hot water and then filtered out to leave brewed coffee which is then dispensed to the user.
While such a system works very well, there are shortcomings. First, the user is typically limited to a selection of one or two types of beverage. For example, a dual dispenser assembly is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,751 to King. While the '751 Patent describes a dual bulk hopper for dispensing either regular or decaffeinated coffee (or either of two beverage ingredients), the user is limited to a choice of two ingredients.
As gourmet coffees and various mixed coffee drinks become increasingly popular, people are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with only two coffee choices. For example, a visit to a grocery store coffee section reveals some 20 or more available varieties of coffee beans.
Thus, what is needed is a mechanism by which a user can select from more than just two or three varieties of a brewed beverage such as coffee from an automated beverage brewer/dispenser. In addition, such a mechanism should be inexpensive and reliable.